Ordinary Girls
by spock4ever
Summary: Previously Titled Gift of Athena-Annabeth experiences an unexpected encounter with her mother Athena after getting her first period while on quest. Expanded to include some experiences of other characters as well.
1. Chapter 1

**The Gift of Athena**

 **This is set during Lighting Thief. On top of all the stuff she must deal with as a demigod, there are certain things she would have to deal with just because she was a 12-year-old girl. She was always so tough but there must have been things that would shake her up at least a little bit. Caution-this fic talks about female puberty. If you don't like that, don't read it.**

On the second day of the quest, Annabeth wasn't quite feeling her usual self, not that she would ever admit this to Percy. Annabeth was no stranger to pain, but this new ache in her abdomen was something she was unfamiliar with. Around lunch time, the were lucky enough to stop in a gas station where she was able to use the restroom and at this point she really needed to go. (On quests, clean restrooms are usually few and far between.)

She pulled down her pants and let out a sharp gasp as she realized her underwear were stained with blood. She'd never seen anything like that before. This must be what some of the older girls call a "period" she thought to herself. She was aware of its existence but growing up on the run meant she had never had anyone give her the talk. She had occasionally seen Thalia's supplies, but it was never discussed especially not in front of Luke.

She quickly snapped herself back to the present. No point in worrying about things that can't be changed. Deciding to try and do the best she could with what she had, she wrapped her underwear in toilet paper and stumbled out of the stall. For some reason, although she didn't understand why, she started to get emotional. She bit her lip and let out a small choke as she attempted to regain her composure.

As she wiped a single tear from her eye, she suddenly realized she was not alone. There was a middle-aged woman who walked out of the stall next to her and began washing her hands. When she looked up and saw Annabeth, she seemed to instantly know what was wrong.

"Annabeth," she said caringly.

Briefly, Annabeth panicked. Usually when somebody she didn't know knew her name, things ended badly. After a second of hesitation, she noticed the small silver stud owl earrings on the women's earlobes. Suddenly it all dawned on her.

"Mom," she asked, "Is that you?"

The woman just smiled, "This is a moment I like to enjoy with all my daughters. All the things you need will be in your backpack. You are growing up into such an amazing young woman."

Just as quickly as she appeared, she was gone. Annabeth turned around and walked back into the stall. She opened her backpack to find the gift from her mother. Always. Smiling, she took care of what needed to be done and left to go find Percy.

"What was going on in there?!" Percy exclaimed, "I thought you were dead!"

"Then why didn't you come in to help?" retorted Annabeth with a hint of sarcasm.

"You were in the **girl's** bathroom."

"I was having **girl** problems."

Percy's face was blank for a moment but quickly shifted to beet red. "You mean the once month ages 12-55 problems for the female half of the species?" he asked sheepishly.

"Yes," she replied plainly, "For the first time."

The matter was never discussed again, that is, until a situation arose aboard the Argo…

 **Sorry Percy couldn't have been more supportive, I think at 12 he probably wouldn't have been quite sure how to handle the situation. I have a story in mind where he would be much more supportive after he has time to get to know Annabeth a little better. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for reviewing, I've gotten some requests to do some of the other characters in the Percy Jackson universe (Piper, Reyna, Hazel, etc.). It might be a long time between updates but I will attempt to do so starting with Hazel. (Keep in mind on the Argo, Hazel is 13, Piper is 15, and Annabeth is almost 17)**

 **Aboard the Argo II somewhere over the Atlantic…**

It was just after midnight when Hazel was startled awake from her nightmare. Her dream had brought her back to the cave in Alaska where she was forced to summon Alcyoneus and then died. Her flashbacks from when she had first come back from the dead may be gone, but there was still a great deal of unfinished business that had to be dealt with. Until then it would haunt her in her dreams. Oh, the joys of being a demigod.

She rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom to splash some water on her face. When she got there, she noticed in the mirror that she seemed to have gotten her period for the first time. The evidence was all over her pants. Perfect, she thought to herself sarcastically, like I really needed anything else to make my life more complicated right now. She knew enough not to be terrified, although her mother certainly hadn't discussed this with her in her previous life, all the girls she knew in the legion were open to talking about it with each other, so she knew the basics.

She wrapped her underwear in toilet paper thought through her options. She needed to get supplies, but who to talk to? She quickly ruled out Coach Hedge, she didn't even know if satyrs had to deal with stuff like this, either way it would be way too awkward. All the other boys were probably out as well, she didn't think any of them would understand her girl problems. Annabeth was a little bit intimidating with so much experience, power, and preparedness for any situation. In the end, that left Piper.

Hazel snuck out into the hallway. It only took a second for her to find her way into Pipers room. She didn't see Percy as he turned the corner behind her on his way to Annabeth's room.

Once inside Pipers room, Hazel gently shook her awake.

"Hazel," Piper groaned, "Are we under attack or something?"

"No," Hazel said, "Nothing like that. I just had something kind of personal I was hoping you could help me with." It was obvious that Piper had no idea where this was going on. At the moment, she was barely even awake. After a brief pause, Hazel quickly asked, "Piper, how old were you when you got your first period?" Now Piper saw what was going on.

"Ten," she answered, "Apparently all the children of Aphrodite get it really young. Hazel looked relieved, that meant Piper should be able to help.

"I kind of just got my period for the first time," Hazel explained, "and I was kind of hoping you could help me out. Piper thought to herself that this girl in front of her must have the rottenest luck of this century, and come to think of it, the last century as well. Child of Pluto, cursed, died in a cave, came back, impossible quest to save Thanatos, impossible quest to defeat giants, and now starting her period in the middle of the Atlantic with two girls that are practically strangers to her. Couldn't it have waited until she was done saving the world?

"I'm sorry Hazel, with all this craziness and saving the world, I completely forgot to pack anything myself. Now that you mention it I am due to start any day now. I guess this is both of our problem now isn't it. Should we go talk to Annabeth?"

Hazel nodded, and they snuck down the hall to Annabeth's room. Hazel reminded herself that Annabeth was always prepared for anything and guessed that included surprise visits from mother nature. When they got there Annabeth was awake at her desk looking at her laptop. When she glanced up she new from the looks on their faces that nothing dangerous was happening. Piper was still in her pink bunny slippers and Hazel looked like she had just rolled out of bed.

Piper was the first to speak up. "I guess we'll get right to the point, Hazel here (awkward wave from Hazel) just got her first period and I don't have any supplies and we were wondering if you could help us out at all?"

Annabeth cursed herself in ancient Greek. She was supposed to be the leader, the one who was prepared for everything. Why had she only packed tampons? Those were fine for her, she had been getting her period for years, but probably not a great option for a girls first period and they were in the middle of the Atlantic with nothing she could do about it.

"Sorry, unless you want tampons, there's not much I can do at the moment. I'm sure you don't want to here this but congratulations on becoming a woman and all that. Nothing like saving the world to make you grow up quick. I remember when I started for the first time. I was on a quest with Percy. It was so awkward"

"Now what?" Hazel asked snapping Annabeth back to the present.

Percy chose that exact moment to step out the bathroom and into Annabeth's room. She had briefly forgotten he was in there and the other two girls were shocked. "Annabeth may not be able to help," he said to Hazel, "But I can." He smiled and ran off towards his room.

The girls were confused. How could Percy help, there was no way he had any…

The door suddenly flew open and there he was standing triumphantly with a variety pack of pads and tampons. "Believe it or not I've been carrying a few spares with me just in case every quest since we went into the Sea of Monsters, but I thought a quest this big warranted I be extra prepared. Don't need a repeat of our quest to save the master bolt now do we?" He joked elbowing Annabeth. Annabeth just rolled her eyes at him. Only her seaweed brain would care enough about the people he was questing with to make sure he had all his bases covered.

"Wait," Hazel asked, "Does that mean, if this had happened in Alaska?"

"Probably wouldn't have been able to help you out then Hazel. I'd say that this sort of preparedness has some pretty strong ties to my Camp Halfblood memories." He laughed and left the room to let the girls chat.

"Did you know he did that?" Piper asked Annabeth.

"Nope, haven't had any problems of the sort since we were twelve. To think he's had my back all this time. My Seaweed Brain." Hazel and Piper nodded in agreement. Annabeth held out the pack and both Hazel and Piper took what they needed. They could restock when they landed in Europe.

Hazel returned to her room the evenings issues already pushed to the back of her mind. Between Nico being held prisoner and the end of the world quickly approaching, she had more important things to worry about.

 **It's almost 1:30 in the morning so I apologize if I made any major mistakes. I'm thinking I'm going to do one with Piper and Jason next. I love this kind of story because it makes the characters seem real, like they are going through the same kinds of problems as the rest of us. For all you Harry Potter fans, I have written a story about Hermione Granger based on the same concept. Thanks for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here we go. Jason and Piper as promised (Plus a little bit of Leo, Leo is just so much fun to write). I apologize if they are a bit out if character in this chapter. I generally prefer writing with characters from the original series or the Roman demigods.**

Piper, Jason, and Leo were sitting on the end of Zuess' table in the pavilion eating breakfast just like they had every day for the last few weeks since they got back from their quest to save Hera. (Chiron had long since bothered trying to make everyone sit at the correct table for their own godly parent. They had to work out a plan to save the world and he didn't like the idea of Jason sitting by himself anyway.) Leo was updating them on the progress of the construction of the Argo II. The main frame of the structure was done, and the planning was completed for some pretty awesome celestial bronze cannons and other defenses.

Leo was enthusiastically pointing out how the figurehead would be attached to the ship when Piper suddenly winced in pain. Her had flew to her stomach and she muttered a curse under her breath in Ancient Greek. She didn't have to check to know that she had started her period. She had always gotten the most painful cramps. She remembered when she was young and had first started. Her dad's assistant at the time had found her dirty underwear and given her the talk. Yet another moment her dad hadn't been there for her. It seemed less important now that she had saved him and realized how much he really cared about her. Suddenly a sharp wave of pain snapped her back to the present. Gritting her teeth, she decided she could hold out until breakfast was over before heading back to her cabin to take care of the situation.

"Piper, you okay?" Jason asked with a concerned tone.

"Fine," replied Piper cutting him off indicating there was nothing more she had to say on the matter.

They continued looking at the designs for the ship. Jason kept glancing over at Piper. Whether or not she would admit it, something was obviously wrong. She was clearly in pain and seemed incredibly frustrated with Leo even though he hadn't been doing anything wrong. Piper quickly realized that waiting till breakfast was over might not have been the best of ideas. She could tell if she didn't leave soon she would end up staining her pants. Mumbling something about forgetting something in her cabin she left and started walking back toward the Aphrodite cabin. Leo continued oblivious to the fact that Piper had even left until he looked up and noticed she was gone and Jason was staring in the direction of the Aphrodite cabin. As he watched her walk away, he noticed she had discretely checked her backside as if to make sure she hadn't spilled anything on herself. Suddenly it clicked in his mind.

"I think," Jason said to Leo, "Piper may have been paid a visit by mother nature"

"Wait, you're telling me Piper was possessed by Gaea at the breakfast table in the middle of Camp Halfblood?" Leo asked skeptically.

Sometimes Jason just wanted to slap the guy, in the most kindhearted of ways of course. "Not that kind of mother nature, the other kind. You know, that time of the month, gift of Diana, on the rag?"

"What are you talking about?" Leo asked still oblivious to the situation.

"I think she's on her period" said Jason.

Leo squirmed in his seat. He was aware of the existence of periods, but his knowledge didn't extend much farther on the subject. He just stared back at Jason. Jason shook his head, got up, and went after Piper. He was a few minutes behind her when he got to the entrance to the Aphrodite cabin.

Piper was curled up on her bed. Her cramps were especially bad this month. All the stress she had been under on her quest to save Hera had finally come back to haunt her. She couldn't believe she didn't have any pain medicine in her supplies at camp. When she had arrived with nothing but the clothes on her back, she had been provided with a backpack of general supplies which included an assortment of pads and tampons but not any sort of generic pain reliever. She heard a knock on the door. Since she was alone in the cabin, she rolled out of bed to answer it. She opened the door and found Jason. Of course he would follow to make sure I was okay, she smiled to herself. Gosh she loved that boy.

"Piper, I figured out what's up. You doing okay?" He asked.

She was about to say she was fine when another wave of pain caught her off guard.

"And don't say you're okay because clearly you are in pain."

"I'm fine" Piper repeated to Jason, "Just cramps, they're especially bad this month. Usually I'm better at hiding it. The fact that I'm out of painkillers isn't really helping."

Now it was clear to Jason what to do, he ran back to his cabin and picked up his half empty bottle of painkillers. He ran back to Pipers cabin and let himself in not wanting to disturb her. She was sitting next to her bed looking out the window. She must have seen him coming. He set the bottle down on her dresser. She jumped up and gave him a hug.

"Thanks." She smiled and took a closer look at the bottle. "Just the kind I like. How did you know?"

A memory triggered for Jason. Although he didn't remember who or when but, he knew with almost certainty that he had done this for someone else before. Someone he was close to. It was so frustrating getting his memories back so slowly he could hardly make sense of the things he remembered. He smiled at Piper.

"Just a lucky guess," He replied. "If you need anything else, you know where I am."

They both smiled as he left the cabin. Suddenly what started as a lousy day didn't seem so lousy after all.

 **Did you like it? Who do you want to read about next? I'm kind of leaning toward Thalia or Reyna but if you want someone else please let me know. I write this for you guys so I want it to go wherever you want it to go. Please let me know in the comments. As always, thanks for reading.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Thalia, truth or dare?" Piper asked.

All the Piper, Hazel, Annabeth, Thalia, and Reyna were sitting in the living room at Piper's house. When her dad had offered for all her friends to come stay for the weekend, she happily took him up on it. They had spent the evening watching movies and now they were settled in for a game of truth or dare. She smiled to herself thinking that this must be what normal teenagers did when the weren't constantly running off to save the world. She could get used to this.

"Truth," Thalia responded after a second's hesitation.

The girls put their heads together. This was a huge opportunity. Thalia wasn't one to share the details of her life. She mostly kept to herself. Annabeth had gotten to know her fairly well when they were on the run together, but that was a long time ago. To most of them, she was pretty much a mystery. Suddenly, the perfect question occurred to Hazel. It wasn't too embarrassing but would probably lead to an interesting conversation.

"Thalia, tell us about the time you got your first period," Hazel said smiling. Thalia looked at her skeptically. "What?" Hazel asked, "Everyone on the Argo knows my story, Annabeth has told me hers and I want to know yours."

"Fine," Thalia said smiling, "Right now, I'm the only person alive who knows this story, but not any longer."

"Wait, you never told anyone?" Piper asked.

"That's not what I said. I said the only person **alive** who knows the story is me."

Annabeth was the first to puzzle it out. "You mean Luke?" she asked surprised. Thalia just nodded, thought back to a time before she had even met any of the girls in the room with her, and began her story…

Thalia and Luke had been eating lunch at a nice park near one of their safe houses. They had been on the run together for a little less than a year and already meant the world to each other. After they were done eating they split up to use the restrooms on opposite sides of the shelter.

This one was nice as far as outdoor public restrooms went. The mirror wasn't broken, it appeared that there were paper towel and soap in their respective dispensers, and the floor was relatively clean. She walked into the stall, turned around, locked it, and sat down to do her business. Her heart dropped when she saw a large red stain on her underwear. To her eternal credit, she didn't shout, or gasp, or give any other indication that she was startled, but on the inside, she was panicking. I must be dying, she thought to herself. Why else would I be bleeding down there? She didn't feel sick, but something was obviously very wrong. Her mind started to wander. She immediately thought of Luke. How was she going to tell him? If this had happened a year ago it wouldn't have been a problem. She didn't have anyone who cared about her then. Now she did. Luke would be devastated. To tell him or not to tell him? She decided that although she would have to stay strong for him for as long as she could, she had to tell him. He deserved to know if he was going to lose her. She would have wanted to know if he was in the situation. To keep from ruining one of her two pairs of pants, she wadded up some toilet paper and shoved it in her underwear. She left the stall, washed her hands, and left the restroom. Luke was standing right outside the door waiting for her. Instantly he knew something was wrong.

"You okay?" he asked concerned, "I was just about to break down the door to come check on you." It sounded like a joke but knowing Luke he probably meant it.

Might as well just get it over with she thought to herself. "Luke," she stuttered but took a quick breath to regain her composure, "I think I'm dying."

Luke instantly panicked. Anyone who didn't know him wouldn't see the distress he was experiencing, but Thalia saw it in his eyes. "What do you mean your dying? You look fine to me. Are you sick or something?"

"I feel fine," Thalia said nervously, "but when I went to the bathroom there was blood." Luke gestured for her to continue. "In my underwear."

Realization dawned on Luke. He thought back to the day in school about a month before he'd ran away when they had separated the boys and girls and lectured them about the facts of life. Since Thalia was younger then he was when she ran away, he realized she probably hadn't had the same experience. The poor girl had no idea what was happening to her. He cheeks started to glow red as he realized he had some explaining to do.

"First of all, you're not dying, just growing up." Thalia looked at him, hopeful but confused. "It's called a period and its something that happens to all girls around your age." He struggled to remember everything he knew on the subject. Some of the details were a little fuzzy. "Every month, as long as you're not pregnant, you bleed out of your," he gestured vaguely. "I think they said it last 4 days to a week and its nothing to worry about." He breathed a sigh of relief at getting through his explanation.

Thalia took a second to process this new information. She was incredibly relieved to hear that she wasn't going to die. "So what do I do about it?" she asked him.

"You need to use things called pads to absorb the blood" he said calmly. "Was there a machine on the wall in the bathroom with a slot for a quarter?" He remembered his mom used those occasionally when he was a child. It wasn't until years later that he realized what they were for.

"I think so," Thalia replied. Luke handed her a quarter and she went back into the bathroom and put it in the machine. In what was a brilliant stroke of luck on her behalf, out of the machine came a little box with a pad and brief instructions explaining how to use it. She went in the stall, applied it to her underwear and went back out to meet Luke. His eyes met hers and she nodded as if to say, yep, all straightened out, nothing to worry about. She thought about how lucky she was to have him in her life to help her through stuff like this and was looking forward to having the opportunity to return the favor. He wouldn't ever gossip, and neither would she. They played to each other's strengths and covered for each other's weaknesses. In that day, in that hour, in that moment, suddenly everything was okay.

The other girls all smiled. Annabeth may have been the only other person there who had known Luke, but the others had heard stories about what a great guy he was before he had been manipulated by Kronos and how in the end he had sacrificed himself to save Olympus. "I miss him too," Annabeth said giving Thalia a gentle hug.

"That's such a cute story." Hazel said grinning.

Reyna was just staring off into space. Unknown to the other girls, she was thinking about Jason, about how much they had meant to each other before he had ran off with Piper, about how much he still meant to her. Quickly she snapped back to the present and smiled.

"Piper, truth or dare?"

 **Here's Thalia as requested. I think I'll do Reyna for the next chapter and then wrap this story up. If you like stories like this, please look at my other work. I have stories from Harry Potter and Big Bang Theory and plans for stories from Mulan and Hunger Games.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry this took me so long to update, life has been keeping me busy. This is the last chapter, I've had it planned for over a week but just never got around to typing it up.**

Reyna had always hated togas. They fit awkwardly, they always had to be ironed and any dirt or stain was always glaringly obvious. This was a fact she came to realize in the months after the war with Krios. During the time leading up to the conflict, the legion had turned a blind eye to a few formalities of the Roman empire for the sake of efficiency and one of those formalities was formal apparel during senate meetings. The senate had to meet so often to approve troop placements or discuss Octavian's findings and it had been easier for them to get more done in a casual setting. She certainly didn't miss fearing for her own life on a regular basis or being responsible for the legion during times of war, but now here she was, next to Jason, in a stupid toga, presiding over the most boring senate meeting since she had been named praetor. If she remembered correctly they were discussing whether to build another road between the camp and New Rome. The last mention of the road had been at least ten minutes ago, and they were currently on a tangent about whether flamingos were an appropriate sacrifice to the god of the underworld. (Don't even ask) After this meeting, she was looking forward to a nice casual dinner with Jason and going to bed.

When the meeting drew to a close, she turned around and left the senate chambers entering the private room wear the praetors kept their togas and prepared for meetings of the senate. Jason followed close behind her. He suddenly stopped short noticing a red stain about the size of a quarter on the back of her toga. At first he wasn't sure how to react. He and Reyna were generally pretty open with each other but for some reason this had never come up. Reyna never seemed to get caught off guard by anything. It was one of the characteristics that made her such a good praetor. He knew he had to tell her, it would probably save her some embarrassment in the long run, but he wasn't sure how to go about doing it. Then an idea occurred to him.

"Reyna, Precheck," he said to her casually closing the door to the senate chambers behind him. Precheck was a code they had invented months ago. Although neither of them was particularly concerned about their appearance in general, they both understood the importance of how they presented themselves as praetors of the legion. In order to inspire confidence, they must always look presentable and in control. Precheck was their way of telling each other that something was out of place, armor strapped on crooked, t-shirt inside out, anything of the sort. Reyna darted over to the mirror and took inventory, her front looked okay but when she checked her back she instantly saw what was wrong and her face turned red.

"Do you think anyone else saw?" she asked removing her toga? He shook his head. Your back was to the wall the whole time and we were the last to leave. Looking relieved she took her toga and rummaged in her bag for a second before disappearing into the bathroom attached to their changing room. She put in a tampon and started about the task of scrubbing the stain out of her toga. Luckily, she had worn black pants today so that stain wasn't near as obvious. As she scrubbed it under the cold water, her mind began to wander. Many of the girls she knew got terrible cramps every month. The fact that she didn't had always been both a blessing and a curse. On the bright side, she didn't have to deal with the pain, but the downside was she never knew when she had started which could lead to situations like this. She had never been particularly regular that combined with the brutal training regimen of the legion made her cycle consistently unpredictable. Most of the stain came out and she figured whoever washed her toga the rest of the time would probably take care of it. She couldn't have been the first person to have this problem, could she?

She went back to the room hoping Jason had already left for dinner and they could immediately put this behind them. She opened the door and found him their waiting for her casually studying the notes he had made during the meeting.

"Sorry" she said before he could say anything else.

"Sorry?" he asked. "Sorry for what?"

"Sorry you had to see that." For some reason she smiled. "Praetors aren't supposed to let people see them get caught off guard by anything."

Jason laughed, "Outside this room, that may be true, but since when am I just people?"

Reyna rolled her eyes at him

"In all seriousness though," Jason said. "It's not a big deal. Do you really think I would make a fuss about? You're a girl, it happens, I'm not going to think any less of you. We have each other's backs remember? Situations just like this are why we invented Precheck in the first place."

She was a little shocked at how well he had handled the whole situation. Some people would have made it awkward by offering to help or teasing her, but he had done exactly what she wanted by just acknowledging that it wasn't a big deal, nothing more, nothing less. She had always admired him but was starting to see the true potential he had as a leader. The two of them could go far together maybe as more than just colleagues.

"Still up for dinner?" she asked zipping her bag and throwing it over her shoulder.

"Wouldn't miss it," he said following her out the door.

Suddenly she was seeing him in an entirely new way all because of a stupid stain on a stupid toga. On second thought, maybe togas weren't quite so bad after all.

 **That's a wrap folks, I hope you all enjoyed the story. It's 2:25 AM and time to call it a night. This story has been a pleasure to write especially for someone who very rarely discusses the quirks of the female anatomy and the unique experiences it provides in real life. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Couldn't have done it without you.**


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